Our laboratory focuses on the smallest organisms on the planet, the bacteria and the archaea, which represent the largest reservoir of biodiversity on Earth, drive the life-sustaining biogeochemical cycles, and cause or control diseases in humans, animals, and plants. Our scientific interests are at the interface of microbial ecology with engineering and computational biology. The long-term goals of our research is to broaden understanding of the genetic and metabolic diversity of the microorganisms and to explore this biodiversity for biotechnological applications.